Oil city Balikpapan celebrates 101 birthday

Oil city Balikpapan celebrates 101 birthday

By Antoni Tambunan

BALIKPAPAN, East Kalimantan (JP): Some residents have
reportedly complained that this City of Oil is so rich that
beggars haunting some shopping centers refuse Rp 100 coins and
hold out for at least Rp 500 notes.

No wonder. This city that celebrated its 101st anniversary
Tuesday, boasted order and cleanliness, and has become the main
development center of the province's southern regions.

It is now the gateway not only to East Kalimantan but the
whole of Kalimantan, whether by land, sea or air. Covering
503,305 square kilometers and with a population of 400,000,
Balikpapan is a municipality with a strategic geographical
location on one side of the Makassar Strait.

The first oil drilling in the city was conducted on Feb. 10,
1897 by Holland's Mathilda Oil Company. Now, it produces around
75.6 million barrel of oil, with annual growth of 1.8 million of
barrel, and 320,478 barrel of non-oil and gas products per annum.

For all of these reasons, it is Balikpapan -- rather than the
provincial capital Samarinda or other major cities -- that has
been made the seat of the Tanjungpura Regional Military Command,
whose jurisdiction covers all of Kalimantan.

Importance

Greater importance has also been attached to Balikpapan with
the establishment of the Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia
and the Philippines East ASEAN Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA).

This cooperation scheme involves 10 provinces in Indonesia's
eastern region, one of which is East Kalimantan. Hence
Balikpapan's greater involvement in international relations.

Under this arrangement, Balikpapan has become one of the nodes
of economic growth for eastern ASEAN (the Association of
Southeast Asian Nations). At present it can boast its
international-standard Sepinggan airport and several star-rated
hotels.

The eighth MICE (Meeting, Incentive, Conference and
Exhibition) city in Indonesia, Balikpapan has hosted such
international activities as the PATA tourism conference, BIMP-
EAGA gatherings, a Conference on the South China Sea and the
Camel Trophy '96.

To ensure success as a MICE city, the administration and the
entire community are working to keep Balikpapan clean and cool,
mayor H. Tjutjup Suparna told The Jakarta Post recently.

In terms of oil and gas, the per capita income of this
municipality increased from Rp 7.5 million in 1995 to Rp 8.3
million in 1996, he said.

The city has been awarded the Adipura award for clean cities
five consecutive times since 1991. In 1996 and 1997 it earned the
Adipura Kencana (golden) award.

Balikpapan was also rewarded for it excellent traffic order
(the Wahana Tata Nugraha awards) between 1992 and 1995. In 1996
and 1997 it was awarded the Wahana Tata Nugraha Kencana award.

Award

To top it all, it has also been awarded the Parasamya Purna
Karya Nugraha award for development undertakings.

American Zygfryd Ostrowski, who visits the city almost every
year, said he admired the cleanliness and the orderliness of the
city. He said one could park a car or motorcycle safely at any
roadside or in front of a house.

"This shows that Balikpapan is safe," he said.

Tjutjup, 44, who was elected to his second five-year term in
1996, told the Post that the municipality now owns two street
cleaning trucks and 64 garbage trucks to ensure the city remains
clean.

"We make every guest, domestic or otherwise, feel at home
here. Community members also play an active role to keep the city
clean by not dumping household garbage carelessly," he said.

In order to cope with an increasing population, residential
and urban areas are being expanded outside the city and supported
by the establishment of facilities such as supermarkets, he said.

"Rapid economic growth and increasing foreign investment in
this municipality call for intensified promotion of human
resources. Otherwise, local people will simply be onlookers some
day," the mayor added.